The Metal Gear Solid HD collection is out, and it looks shockingly good. I think it's a pretty well-known fact that I'm a huge, sentimental fan of the franchise. To be quite honest, it's one of those few I love enough that I don't know where my personal reaction begins and my critical lens -- you know, the distanced thought I try to give games so that I can talk to you guys about them independently of my own taste -- ends.
Okay, I'm a huge fan. But then, even in my work I'm known to prefer games with voice and character. In MGS, that voice and character often veers into the arena of self-indulgence, and jeopardizes things like mass appeal or conventional design wisdom, and even still I prefer it to games that are cleaner and much better crafted.
MGS demands a lot from its players in terms of investment and patience. Its story is not accessible, and it turns over and over on itself like a coiling snake in its attempts to make its numerous meta-meta-plot loops connect. Yes, you have to sit through a lot of dialogue and cut scenes that are nakedly imitative of film. Some people argue that Hideo Kojima, who is director of the series and thus assumedly responsible for its tone and character, is plainly resentful of his audience and of the industry in which he works (I agree). Plenty don't like that.
But to me, a work of creative storytelling needs to reflect the creator. I want to be able to talk about what he or she wants to say, and what their work says about them. I always have something to say about MGS. The media I know I really love will put the hair up on my arms no matter how much time passes, and no matter how many times I experience it (sidenote: I feel this way about Neutral Milk Hotel's song 'Naomi,' one of my favorite songs ever).
My dear game industry: I rarely write scored reviews, but if I had, I would put an eight and higher on everything you have released this fall and winter. You have done well, you have done so, so well. Congratulations. It's one of the highest-quality crops of games I've ever seen. But I will not remember them in ten years. I am sorry.
I've never met a working game designer that thinks MGS is great. I spoke to one lately who said that Tetris is perfect and MGS is not, end of story -- but the thing I think the games industry fails to understand about its audience is that we care a lot less about perfection than it thinks. So for the people who always are asking me what's the big deal about MGS for me, even that'd suffice as an answer: Because it's interesting and I want to talk about it.
I've started sort of replaying all of them since the HD collection came out. My friend Sarah is my copilot, having read in Tom Bissell's lovely book's appendix about the time when he spent a few hours playing MGS4 with me and listening to me chatter about how I feel it's a metaphor for the things Kojima wants to say about the 21st century games industry. No, I'm serious.
People ask me a lot if I have written much about my thoughts on MGS, which I've mostly shared through conversations with others and on Twitter and stuff. Writing it out formally has always seemed too fangirlish. But in the next couple weeks I'm going to try to do it, like, to some extent. Hope you guys join in.
Meanwhile, here's some of what I have done over the last few weeks that I haven't linked yet:
Zach Gage Tackles A Genre He Hates With SpellTower
Microsoft's Tynes Helps Kids Kinect With Project Columbia Prototypes
Toys For Bob's Rewarding Skylanders Flight
Naughty Dog's Lemarchand Defines Uncharted's Heritage
Alice In Wondermind's Trip To The Tate
Empire Avenue's Sentimental Currency In The Social Age
Microsoft's Tynes Helps Kids Kinect With Project Columbia Prototypes
Toys For Bob's Rewarding Skylanders Flight
Naughty Dog's Lemarchand Defines Uncharted's Heritage
Alice In Wondermind's Trip To The Tate
Empire Avenue's Sentimental Currency In The Social Age
Also, I was on NPR with Ian Bogost in a segment that was based on my recent Kotaku piece on his Cow Clicker game. Cool!
11 comments:
I'm a huge fan of MGS. I started with the demo for MGS 1. I grew up watching my dad and sister play it. I finally got my hands on the real copy at small mom and pop game store on 96th street in manhattan after a doctors appointment. I asked my dad to get it and since he knew what it was he bought it.
I instantly fell in love with the story and the gameplay and everything it had from it's cast of outrageous characters to it's awesome score.
Despite it's short comings with those who don't really like MGS I still love it. I'm glad you're going to be posting about it. I can't wait to see what you write.
MGS brings up fond memories of the past. Although trying to find a copy was a quest in itself. Actually I waited to find MGS2 for the Xbox. Sure it may not be its original form, or contains a bonus disc. It felt solid enough.
MGS3 was a humbling surprise, but MGS4 I have yet to play (if ever). Besides the console barrier, not sure why its been like that still. Weren't we suppose to get over that blockade years ago?
I agree...
When I read about all those games that are supposed to have "massive" appeal and how they fail again and again (you'd think that after all those failures they would change the strategy but...) I end up thinking that it isn't about achieving a so-called perfection (if we aren't perfect, why should we like "perfect" things?).
And sometimes we come across an incredibly flawed game that we can't put down no matter how many times it punishes us.
You end up loving it like you end up loving everything else in life...
Oh my god, I can't wait! MGS games + Leigh Alexander make for a delicious combination.
Not gonna lie, Leigh, I originally started reading your stuff after I read something you posted about how much you dig on MGS. Although nowadays I have a deep appreciation for your insight and writing style, for the longest time now I've been waiting for you to just geek out about this series and I'm in utter anticipation to see your take on...well, just about everything that Kojima has thrown directly into my brain over the course of 4 great games.
Like you said, not perfect, but who cares; it's goddamn Metal Gear Solid.
MGS was the first game where I could tell that there was an author and he had a voice, something he wanted to say. The delivery may have been awkward and the mechanics were certainly flawed - I played it on the PC, it was practically unplayable in places because of the way the controls were set up - but it made a huge impression on me. It made me care about games much more than I had before.
I have a ridiculous backlog of games to get through... I still haven't played through MGS 3! :(
Should I play the HD version, the original Snake Eater version, or the Subsistence version?
You should get the HD version, because it contains Substance and Subsistence versions, respectively, of 2 and 3.
If the series has a shortcoming it's its camera, sometimes. MGS3 fixes it. unless you're super used to the old way of camera, in which case it's weird, but it's optional in any case, so yeah. get hd, it looks amaaazing!
I like how you mention "perfection" as my favorite game of all time would be considered far, far from perfect... but it is still my favorite. God Hand. I love that game more than any other game made before or after it. MGS is pretty high on my list as well though.
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